(Bloomberg) -- McWin Capital Partners, the food investment firm helmed by dealmakers Henry McGovern and Steven Winegar, is in talks to buy UK bakery chain Gail’s, according to people familiar with the matter.
The investment firm is seeking to preempt a sale process for Gail’s, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the information is private. The owners of Gail’s recently hired Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to prepare an auction of the bakery chain, the people said.
McWin Capital is already a backer of the parent company of Gail’s alongside other investors including Bain Capital Special Situations. Deliberations are ongoing and there’s no certainty they will lead to a transaction, the people said.
Representatives for Gail’s and Bain Capital declined to comment. Spokespeople for McWin and Goldman Sachs didn’t immediately respond to queries.
The first Gail’s bakery was opened in London’s Hampstead High Street in 2005. Gail’s now has more than 100 stores across the UK and plans to open another 35 in the current financial year, making it one of the fastest-growing chains in the country.
McWin Capital focuses on investment in pan-European food services and food technology companies. It owns exclusive franchise agreements for Subway and Popeyes in some European countries as well as Japanese casual dining brand Sticks’n’Sushi and Italian-themed chain Big Mamma, its website shows.
Sky News reported in November that Gail’s backers had hired Goldman Sachs for a potential sale, without saying where it got the information. Analysts speculated that the company could be worth as much as £500 million ($637 million), the news outlet wrote at the time.
--With assistance from Sabah Meddings.
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